Decker Library

I happened to stumble upon Decker Library while in the area. Its a very small little building that the inside looks like a 19^th century Victorian English manor. Since the interior of the building is small and compact there might be trouble finding a table to conduct your studies on, other than that the WiFi is fast, the staff is helpful and the general ambience is quiet and peaceful.

Cute little neighborhood library that has a old English feel to it. I came here to kill time studying. It was quiet, the staff was very polite and helpful, and the children present were quiet.
Its libraries like this that make studying enjoyable.

I love this DPL location! It has a very cozy, homey feel to it and even though it’s small, I feel like I can spend hours browsing the selections. The staff is also very friendly and helpful.

Just ventured over to Decker for the first time today (About an hour walk as opposed to my local library 10 minutes away), and I LOVED it! I love that it’s right in Platt Park so my daughter can play on the playground when we go to get more books.
My main reason for visiting this DPL branch was because they have a free program for babies (6mos-​24mos) twice a week called Book Babies. The program was great! I took my 17 month old daughter to meet some new friends and sing some songs. It was only a half hour long, so it was the perfect length of time for her short attention span :) Everyone got copies of the same board books, a jingle bell/​rattler to make some noise, and a scarf to play with (all the toys and books are sanitized before & after each session, thank-​goodness). We sang songs and read the board books out loud. It was such a fun time for all the babies :) It was also a great place to meet other moms with babies around my daughters age. Book Babies was such a great alternative to those expensive Gymboree classes… you can’t beat free entertainment! (For those of you that are not fans of babies or kids I’d avoid the library on Wednesday & Thursday mornings when they have their Book Babies & Story-​time programs).
As mentioned in some other reviews, the building was a little on the small side (still bigger than my local DPL branch), and the overall selection is not very big, but the beauty of the DPL system is that you can request any dvd/​cd/​book etc. & they will have it sent to any library you want to pick up. On the plus side for those of you with little ones, the children’s dvd selection was great, and I was very pleased with the large collection of board books for babies since I’m not a fan of checking out paper books for my baby girl to rip up (not cheap to replace, haha).
In short, this is my new favorite library because it’s so kid-​friendly with the free programs, lots of board books, and close proximity to the park. Can’t wait to go back!

Decker is a nice little branch library with a friendly, welcoming feel and a good selection of DVDs and kids’ books. Decker has a pretty small collection of regular books, but you can always order whatever you need (from the comfort of your own home) from other branches and generally they’ll show up on the hold shelf within a few days. Overall, It’s a great place to go if you want to satisfy your need to acquire things without actually spending any money or stealing (I guess this is true of all public libraries). It’s also a nice place to hang out — the building has a lot of character: it’s an early-​1900s tudor-​style building (a Carnegie) complete with murals depicting scenes from children’s stories.
Speaking of children, Decker is very kid-​friendly, so it’s a good winter destination if you need to get out of the house with your baby/​toddler/​small child when it’s too cold to go to the park. There’s even a little inglenook where you can read to your kid.
There’s also free wifi if you bring a laptop (and you don’t even have to buy a coffee!), and they have some computer terminals where you can check email (you can use them for 30 or 60 minutes at a time depending on which computer you get). The computer terminals get a little busy in the evenings but there’s generally no wait in the middle of the day.
The librarians are just like librarians should be — slightly pale and awkward and always kind and helpful. They’re also pretty tolerant of loud babies and kids, which is great if you have one and maybe (judging from one of the other reviews) not so great if you don’t.
I wish they had longer hours and more books but I’m sure their budget is pretty limited. It’s also very hard to get across Logan St. in front of the library at Florida — I wish they would put in a four-​way stop there — but, obviously, the library people can’t do anything about that.

I love stickin’ it to The Man. Especially when The Man is either Blockbuster or Starfux. Recently, my local Blockbuster outlet went belly up, and rather than cry in my pint, I thought of what great businesses could go in that primo spot of real estate.
I also remembered that the Decker DPL branch was back in business after a (too long) construction project. Decker is the best source of free videos in South Denver. So, here’s the good and bad.
Good: Fantastic library to get stuff for the kids, and you can check out an obscene amount of DVDs at once, something like 8-​each of kids, fiction, and non-​fiction (careful about being too aggressive and accruing fines). Building is historic, murals on the walls, and located on the same block as Platte Park. Grab a book then toss a frisbee. I give the joint a 4-​star because a solid-​3 just isn’t enough. People need to frequent their taxpayer-​funded libraries more, and this is Free DVD Spot Alpha.
Bad: Music CD collection is miniscule compared to what it was. Also, like every branch of the Denver Public Library system, the hours are few, and spotty. I know it’s a money thing, but it still sucks. I don’t know how these great librarians keep their jobs. I’d rather live with potholes, and have libraries open from 9am to 9pm.
Bottom line: Though you can have DVDs shipped to any library, this is a nice place to swing by. Outside of going to the main branch, I like heading to this one a lot. And no-​hassle parking fails to suck.
Support your public library. You pay for it, so you should use it. And chat with your librarian. You just might find them interesting.
So long Blockbuster. Circuit City paved the road for you.

In this sluggish economy, it was time to reduce/​eliminate my habit of buying books and start checking books out for free at my local library. I received a tip from my well read cousin that one can sign on to the library website, choose the book they want to check out and the book will be delivered to any branch you choose for pickup. That sounded awesome and it actually was. Ordering free books from the library was easy and the Decker branch is blocks from my house.
The Decker branch is small, but cute. They have a huge children section and teen section for the size of the library. This would explain the 30 kids running around using outside voices every time I go to the library. With that many kids, in such a small space, I feel like I am contracting swine flu, lice or chicken pox (whatever those kids carry).
All in all, the library is a great, tax dollar funded alternative to your local bookstore.

Though only open 4 days a week and one of the smallest of Denver’s libraries, it holds a special place in my heart for being within walking distance from my house. The fact that it is rumored to be haunted doesn’t hurt either.
This is one of those rare quiet libraries. An an original Carnegie library, the building itself makes me smile for being so unbelievably cute. Historically, a neighborhood gem.